More Broadband Services in the Offing
By Goh Thean Eu
GREEN Packet Bhd, which was awarded a WiMAX licence recently, has pledged to launch more broadband-based services starting this year.
Its chief executive officer Puan Chan Cheong said the roll-out will be launched in stages, both in terms of geographical coverage and types of services.
He said by the end of 2008, it will start to launch more advanced Internet-based services like Internet Protocol TV (IPTV), as well as fixed and mobile voice services that allow customers to make cheaper phone calls.
For a start, the company will roll out wireless broadband services for homes. The services will initially cover the entire Klang Valley, followed by the other parts of Peninsular Malaysia.
With the service, one can surf the Internet at home, or in the neighbourhood park, without the presence of a fixed phone line. Users can do all that with their current WiFi-enabled laptops, there will not be any hardware upgrades.
Puan said with its patented product, SONmetro, it can boost a standard WiFi range of 50 metres to a few kilometres as well as increase its speed.
“Rest assured, we will be rolling out our wireless broadband service by the end of this year,” Puan told Business Times. “But, it is not just about speed. It’s about being reliable and improving users’ experience.”
Although SONmetro can boost the range and speed of WiFi frequency, Green Packet still needs the WiMAX spectrum to provide a strong backbone for the service.
“Without WiMAX, we will have to use fibre-optic cables as the backbone, which can be costly over time,” he said.
Green Packet also plans to offer dedicated leased-line services (using WiMAX) to corporate customers, mostly for Internet access.
Users normally pay a premium for a leased line and it is supported by a comprehensive Service-Level Agreement with a guaranteed fix time and a compensation clause. A dedicated 2Mbps leased line can cost at least RM5,000 a month.
Besides giving Green Packet additional revenue stream, WiMAX can help the firm save at least 10 per cent in operating expenditure, as it is less dependant on fibre-optic cables.
Puan said it will be a matter of time before more WiMAX-enabled equipment like laptops, PDAs and handphones are out in the market at affordable prices.
When that day comes, the company will be ready to upgrade its SONmetro solutions to handle the “migration” to WiMAX.
He said these plans have been on the drawing board since a year ago, and implemented since third-quarter last year.
“We have been acquiring sites to deploy our base stations,” he said, adding that winning the WiMAX spectrum means Green Packet just has to make some adjustment to its initial plan. “Instead of using fibre optics as backbone, we will use WiMAX.”
(c) 2007 New Straits Times. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.